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American Morning
Interview of John Bolton, Undersecretary of State
Aired January 24, 2002 - 08:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As the U.S. pursued al Qaeda in Afghanistan, troops found papers describing efforts to build weapons of mass destruction. That gave the U.S. even more reason to worry about the spread of those weapons.
Now, a conference on international security in Geneva is looking at the issue of how serious is the global threat of nuclear and biological attack, and how do you prevent weapons of mass destruction from falling into the wrong hands?
We turn to U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton, who is attending the United Nations conference in Geneva. He joins us now -- delighted to have you join us today. Thank you very much for your time.
JOHN BOLTON, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: Glad to be here.
ZAHN: So Mr. Bolton, Mike Boettcher is going to report later today on CNN about the significance of some of this information now that U.S. investigators have been able to look through, indicating that al Qaeda's nuclear program was pretty advanced. What is your judgment, how far along was its program?
BOLTON: Well, there's a lot of information that our troops have gathered that's being evaluated, and I don't have any doubt that al Qaeda was pursuing nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare capabilities.
It's not our judgment at the moment that they were that far along, but I have no doubt that they were seeking to do so, and it underlines just how serious the threat of the use of these weapons of mass destruction could be and why it's such an important part of the global campaign against terrorism.
ZAHN: I wanted you to react to what Hamid Mir, one of Osama bin Laden's biographers, has said about al Qaeda's nuclear capability, and I am going to put this up on the screen for the folks who actually can see this back here stateside
"I wish to declare that if America used chemical or nuclear weapons against us, then we may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons. We have the weapons as a deterrent."
Can you actually rule out the possibility of some kind of nuclear attack from al Qaeda right now?
BOLTON: Well, I think the possibilities are extremely remote, but I think having said that, it's still important to understand that these people were seeking to acquire those kinds of capabilities, and one of the things that we're looking at most closely is, whether any nation-states might have been supporting them in that effort, because if true, that would tell us a lot about the nature of the kind of world those states want to live in, and what the appropriate American and allied response has to be.
ZAHN: Is there any evidence you can point to that would suggest that nation-states have helped Osama bin Laden in advancing his nuclear weapons program?
BOLTON: Not directly on the weapons of mass destruction. There were some Pakistani scientists that were reported on early after the September 11 attacks. We've been in consultation with them about that, but I should stress that we have uncovered a lot of information in the al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. There's a lot of investigative work going on around the world, a lot of intelligence sharing. There's a lot we still don't know.
So, this is hardly a point to make a definitive conclusion, but I can tell you that the Bush administration takes any of these indications of al Qaeda's search for weapons of mass destruction very seriously, and we're going to pursue them quite vigorously.
ZAHN: We focused a lot this morning on al Qaeda directly. How vulnerable is America to a biological weapons attack, or a nuclear weapons attack from another group?
BOLTON: The anthrax release that has received so much comment, I think, shows that if we're not prepared to defend ourselves and manage the consequences of the attack, or find out about it in advance, that it could be quite serious.
So, one of the things that Tom Ridge and the Homeland Security folks are doing, and, really, many parts of government, is looking to expand our knowledge of where the threats might come from, and how we might deal with them. This is something we should be concerned about.
It's one of the reasons that the United States has put such a focus on getting nations that have signed up to the prohibition against the use of biological weapons to come fully into compliance with their obligations.
There are a number of rogue states, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, that have biological weapons programs in violation of their commitments under existing treaties, and we think focusing on that, those violations, is very important. We're in consultations with our allies and friends around the world on exactly that point.
ZAHN: Given what you have just said about Libya, do you have concerns about these reports that the U.S. is, in fact, talking with Moammar Gadhafi about some potential kind of deal where if he pays some sort of reparations to the victims' families of Pan Am Flight 103 that he may be taken off the nation terror list?
BOLTON: Well, I hate to sound like a bureaucrat, that's not my area, but I can say that American concern with Libya's efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, which have intensified after the lifting of the U.N. sanctions, is something we do pay a great deal of attention to.
ZAHN: I know you have a lot more business to handle today. Once again, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton. We appreciate your joining us on "American Morning" this morning.
BOLTON: Glad to do it.
ZAHN: Take care.
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